Syncing Active Directory with Office 365

There is a high chance that organizations with Office 365 may also have on-premises AD as their primary identity manager. In such cases it is possible to sync on-premises AD with Microsoft Azure AD using Azure AD Connect.

Following are the advantages that arise out of this integration,

• Organizations can provide users with a common hybrid identity across on-premises or cloud-based services leveraging Windows Server Active Directory and then connecting to Azure Active Directory.
• Administrators can provide conditional access based on application resource, device and user identity, network location and multifactor authentication.
• Users can leverage their common identity through accounts in Azure AD to Office 365, Intune, SaaS apps and third-party applications.
• Developers can build applications that leverage the common identity model, integrating applications into Active Directory on-premises or Azure for cloud-based applications

To use Azure AD Connect, take the following steps:

1. Download the Azure AD Connect installer.
2. Run the installer in the server that you want to use as the sync server.
3. Agree to the license terms and click Continue.
4. In the Express Settings screen click on Use express settings.



Figure 1. The Azure AD Connect Express Settings screen

5. In the next screen enter your Office 365 administrator credentials and click Next.
6. After authentication, the Ready to Configure appears. In this screen select or deselect the options you need.
7. Click Install.
8. On successful installation, reboot the machine.